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NSPCC helpline and ChildLine
We help thousands of adults, children and families

The NSPCC helpline and ChildLine provide help and support to thousands of adults, children and families. Year on year, the number of calls and online contacts is increasing and helping to protect more children.

Our helpline counsellors are there 24 hours a day, ready to help parents, adults and people working with children do whatever they can to protect them.

ChildLine gives children a voice. Whatever their worry, whenever they need help, we're listening. It means we understand the problems they face, and we make sure that tackling them is at the heart of everything we do. It’s one of the things that makes us unique as a children’s charity.

Helping adults protect children 24 hours a day

Our helpline gives adults a place they can contact to get advice or share their concerns about a child, anonymously if they wish. It's staffed by professional counsellors with backgrounds in jobs like teaching, healthcare and social work, who know how to spot the signs of abuse and what to do to help.

We understand how upsetting it can be to think a child’s in danger. And we know it can be difficult to know what to do. Having those conversations means that we can protect children in abusive situations by getting them the help they need.

Every 10 minutes someone contacts us to report child abuse or to get advice about a child's safety.

29% neglect

20% physical abuse

16% sexual abuse

13% emotional abuse

The 4 main concerns people contacted us about

Based on 46,464 contacts in 2012/13 for which we have data about the concerns.

The remaining 22 per cent of contacts relate to a range of concerns including child health, family relationships and adult behaviour.

Helping children for decades

ChildLine began in October 1986, launched by Esther Rantzen in response to a plea from children who needed help. In its first year, ChildLine spoke to 23,000 children who desperately needed a voice.

Services opened across the country over the following years, expanding as the need became increasingly apparent. In 2006, ChildLine formally became part of the NSPCC.

As childhoods have changed, ChildLine has worked hard to change with them. In October 2009, we launched the ChildLine website, offering help and advice to children online for the first time. In 2012/13 the website received 2.4 million visits – a 28 per cent increase from the previous year.

How the NSPCC helpline can help you

Report abuse

Our helpline is here 24/7. So if you’re worried about a child, you can always talk to us.

ChildLine's here for children

ChildLine provides a safe, confidential place for children with no one else to turn to. A child contacts ChildLine every 20 seconds – and some of these children are going through the toughest times of their lives. They find the courage to talk to us about things like family problems, bullying and depression. Problems that children often feel they can't talk to anyone else about.

Childline counsellors get well over a million calls from children every year, in addtion to thousands and thousands of online contacts. We’ve seen a rise over the last year in young people talking about mental health issues, self-harm and suicide.

Because of ChildLine no one understands the issues facing young people today better than we do, but we couldn't run this service without the generous time of our volunteer counsellors.

In 2013-14 ChildLine carried out almost 300,000 in-depth direct counselling sessions with children and young people.

Children's stories

I'll always be grateful to them because without ChildLine I don't know what I would have done.